It’s the age-old question… As a freelance blogger, do I need a niche? If I do, how do I choose a profitable freelance blogging niche?

If you’re a beginner who follows the work of more advanced freelance bloggers, you’re probably aware of the controversy that surrounds picking a niche. Perhaps you’ve been in turmoil since you began freelancing for a living, wondering if you should take on gigs in any industry or limit your interests down to one or two areas of expertise.

Well, I’m here to tell you that you’re not alone. We’ve all been there at one point or another.

Personally, I was lucky that I already had one niche in mind before I started freelance blogging.

How come, I hear you ask?

Well, from a young age, I knew I wanted to work in the fashion industry so, thanks to my knowledge, Fashion Marketing university degree and work experience I gained prior to freelance blogging, fashion naturally became my main niche. Then digital marketing became my secondary niche.

Unfortunately, focusing on one niche isn’t always straightforward (I mean, I still say that I have two niches if anybody asks). There’ll likely be times when you doubt yourself, times when you wonder if you’ve made the right choice with your niche and times when you feel like changing up your niche because you’re so sick of writing about the same handbag trends over and over again.

#TrueStory

However, it’s all part of the process. Trust me. Read on for my tips (plus expert advice) on how to find a profitable freelance blogging niche that works for you.

Utilise Your Passions

The first step to finding your freelance blogging niche is to figure out what interests you. Whether it’s business, insurance or birds that don’t have wings, find out what you love and run with it.

Having trouble pinpointing your passions? Not to worry – simply create a good ol’ spider diagram. (You know, the ones that they make you create at school during brainstorming sessions.)

Put your name in the middle and draw a leg for every hobby or interest that you have. Then, when you’re done and your spidey has however many legs, pin the ‘gram to your bedroom/office wall (for me, it’s one of the same) for daily inspo until you figure out which one or two legs are calling to you the most.

After all, there’s no point blogging full-time about a niche that doesn’t remotely interest you – and you plan to do this as a career for years to come, right? It goes without saying that it’s important to get it right.

Figure Out What You Know

If you’re still struggling, ask yourself what you know about the world? What are you an expert in?

Do you have qualifications in a certain field? Did you excel in history at school? Do you know everything that there is to know about cardboard recycling? (Hey, to each their own!)

Consider your passions, but also be smart when you’re picking out a niche. Take advantage of your subject knowledge so that you can wow your clients with inside information that no one else knows to create demand for your world-class content – because that’s how you start making the big bucks, my friend.

Draw From Your Past Work Experience

For instance, I worked in various jobs in the fashion industry before I started freelance blogging. Mentioning my past work experience makes me stand out from the crowd when I pitch to fashion clients and tell them about my credentials. (I know – check me out, right?)

If you’re struggling, take a scan over your CV and pick out some industries where you think you could make a difference with your knowledge and experiences. Then get pitching to clients in those industries and see how you get on.

Work Out Where the Money Is

Okay, say that you love your fur baby so much that you decide you want to write about dogs for a living. That’s fair enough. Suppose you manage to find a client who has their own online pets magazine (or similar), but then you realise that this client is only going to pay you $0.02 per word for every article you write for them.

Do you take the gig? Even though you really want to make this niche work for you?

The answer is: it’s completely up to you (but, personally, I don’t think that $0.02 is going to pay a millennial’s bills).

“I did not choose this niche; instead, it revealed itself after trying to find freelance writing jobs. At first, my niche was about natural health and education and as I researched how to market my freelance writing business, I fell in love with this niche!

Then, as luck would have it, a prospect reached out to me and asked if I would like to write about social media marketing. I did not let them know that this was new territory for me. Instead, I did have asample in my growing portfolio about social media and that helped me land this client.

So when looking back, I decided on my niche, tried to find gigs in that niche but was unlucky. But, I still built my portfolio with somewhat random topics and was able to land a client in a niche I was interested in – digital marketing.”

Elise Dopson

“I chose my freelance writing niche after working in-house at an SEO agency. I was their main copywriter, meaning I worked on content pieces for any client. From wall cladding manufacturers to pet insurance, it was varied, to say the least!

This helped me to suss-out the type of writing I wanted to do. I got the chance to work on several pieces of content for several clients, but I eventually found that I enjoyed writing for the agency itself, more than the clients… Hence why I’m now a B2B marketing copywriter!”

Daniel Mattia

“When I first started freelancing, I was adamantly against choosing a niche. Why limit myself (and my potential income) to only one small field? But as the old cliche goes, fate had something in store for me.

Before launching my freelance business, I had previously worked as a licensed insurance agent. I had experience and in-depth knowledge about most major insurance products and understood more nuanced details about insurance as a whole (like underwriting, how premiums are determined, etc.). I leveraged my insurance license and expertise to land my first client before I even had much of a portfolio to point to. The more posts I wrote about insurance, the more insurance-related writing requests hit my inbox. After awhile, I started to realize that, despite my inclinations against niching, I had fallen into the insurance niche (and it was paying my bills!).

Funnily enough, writing in the insurance niche eventually expanded to finance (which is a close cousin to insurance), and then for startups, solopreneurs, and small businesses. Niching into insurance laid the foundation for what’s become a very healthy and stable freelance career with multiple niches.”

Don’t Limit Yourself

Mr Mattia makes a very valid point. Even though some fellow freelancers may disagree, you don’t necessarily have to stick with just one niche. No siree.

Instead, it’s perfectly acceptable to have a few on the backburner. As I said, I have two main ones – then a few little ones that I like to dabble in from time to time.

If you’re able to find high-paying clients in other niches, it doesn’t hurt to have many strings to your bow so-to-speak. In fact, being diverse and adaptable is a smart business move rather than limiting yourself when you don’t really need to.

If you’re worried about niching down completely, then don’t do it. Do what’s best for your business, taking inspiration from Mr Hancock.

Gareth Hancock

“If I did have a niche I guess it would be digital marketing, given that it’s the subject I’ve written about the most over the years. More recently I’ve written a lot for SaaS companies so that could easily be a niche too. But, alas I don’t have one.

I know the benefits of having one and I know different ways of going about picking one, but I’ve never wanted to settle on a niche. I like working in B2B and B2C and I enjoy working for businesses of different sizes and stature.

And not having a niche has done me no harm whatsoever. Could I earn more money if I had a niche? Maybe. But everything is working perfectly at the moment and I’ve no plans to change just yet.

If I was to give advice to any new writers I would say, look to find a niche but don’t fret over it. Not having a niche doesn’t mean your career won’t take off. If you’re a good writer you’ll get work. And once you’re working, maybe you’ll find something you really enjoy writing about that can be a niche.

… Or you can just be a niche nomad like me.”

Picking a Profitable Freelance Blogging Niche

Even though it can be challenging trying to analyse your passions, qualifications, experiences and knowledge to choose a freelance blogging niche (or niches), it’s worth trying to align your focus in some way.

Whether you decide to niche right down or focus on a few subject areas, be sure to try out different options to find out which ones work, even if they’re completely different from your original expectations, and it won’t be long before you’re making the big bucks in your chosen niches.

Also, remember that you’re likely going to have to spend hours writing about your niche, so make sure that it’s something you’re really into. You don’t want to be falling asleep at your keyboard every day.

🙂

Have you picked just one freelance blogging niche? Or do you have multiple? Let me know in the comments!